Cloneclub at High School
by neve-grey
Summary: Sarah, Beth, Alison and Cosima attend their local high school together. At 17, they're trying as hard as they can to have their own identity - it's hardly easy being one of four.
1. Chapter 1

"Dammit, Alison, where did you put my Bio textbook? I left it right here on the couch!"

"Perhaps you shouldn't leave your junk lying around," Alison said haughtily, shrugging her backpack over her shoulder and making a beeline for the front door. Beth followed quickly. She didn't want to get involved with a dispute right before school.

"You really need to stop touching Cosima's stuff, Alison," Sarah said from the table, spooning the last of her cereal into her mouth. "It's way too early to hear her shrieking about bloody books."

"I don't touch any of Alison and Beth's fitness shit!" Cosima said angrily, her voice rising. She continued to overturn cushions and magazines in the vain hope her textbook would appear.

"Language, you," Mrs S said as she entered the room; she was holding the fabled Biology book. "It was on your desk. Where you left it."

Alison snickered.

"And please don't yell at your sister," Mrs S added as she gave the thick book to the youngest of the four. Cosima continued to glare at Alison while Beth, who had remained silent the whole time, tried to edge them further out the house.

"Come on," Sarah said in a ringing voice. She handed Cosima her backpack and lead her out the door into the sunny morning.

As usual, Beth and Alison didn't waste a moment in taking off ahead. The other two didn't mind. It was quite usual for them to divide into the pairs.

Alison glanced over her shoulder.

"I put the book on her desk," she whispered to Beth who rolled her eyes.

"Of _course_ you did. Why do you have to provoke her?"

"I'm not provoking her. She infuriates me, leaving all those books in every corner of the house. And Sarah's no better. Leaving her laundry in the bathroom constantly. I shudder to think what it'd be like to share a room with either of them – Donnie!"

Alison's face split into a grin. Her boyfriend was waiting at the street corner. She abandoned Beth and rushed forward; he swung her around easily as she leapt up to him.

"Ugh," Sarah said in unison with Beth. None of the others particularly liked Donnie; he was a jock, with a whole heap of ego and a big mop of hair that he liked to tie in a ponytail.

"I don't know what she sees in him," Beth muttered, falling back and into stride with Sarah. Cosima was lagging; she had opened her Bio textbook and was reading. She pushed her glasses up her nose and ignored Alison's swooning.

* * *

"Oh shit. I'm gettin' out of here," Sarah said almost inaudibly. They had just passed through the school gates when they saw Paul, Beth's boyfriend, heading towards them. Sarah clamped her hand around Cosima's arm again and dragged her further into the torrent of students filing to class.

"You know, you're going to have to come clean about that," the bespectacled sister said. "Paul clearly feels the same way about you. I've seen the way you two look at each other… it isn't fair to Beth."

"Hey," Sarah said, whipping her sister around to face her. "I'll come clean about Paul if you come clean about –"

Sarah jerked her head in the direction of a tall blonde girl that was approaching.

"_Sarah!_" Cosima hissed. _"There is nothing going on between me and_ – hi, Delphine," Cosima said, a hint of pink flowering on her cheeks. She smiled at the French exchange student who stood there hugging her own Biology textbook.

"Are you excited about this afternoon?" Delphine asked. Sarah's face lit up with a mischievous grin.

"What's, ah, what's happening this afternoon, Cos?"

"Oh, I'm sorry – do they not know?" Delphine asked breathily, immediately looking awkward.

"No, no, it's okay. It's fine," Cosima said, not wanting to make her friend feel any more uncomfortable. "I'm getting dreads today and Delphine is coming with me. I didn't want to say anything in case Alison found out. You know her, she'd tell Mrs S, and –"

"Dreads?" Sarah said incredulously. "You are a stoner," she snorted.

"I'm not getting dreads because I smoke the occasional joint," Cosima retorted coolly. "I'm getting them because I've always wanted them. And I'd like for people to stop getting me confused with you. Or Beth. Or Alison. So."

"I bet they're going to look sexy," Delphine said. She blushed, and Cosima bit her lip through a small smile.

"And on that note," Sarah said, looking from one girl to the next, "I've spotted Felix. I'll see you later."

"Don't tell Alison about the dreads!"

* * *

Through the mass of students, Sarah had seen their brother. Felix had stayed over (against Mrs S' wishes) at his boyfriend's house. While Sarah loved her sisters, she found some solace with Felix, who was often caught in the middle of the identical's feuds.

"Cosima's getting dreads," she said straight away.

"I think she'll look hot," Felix said as he rifled through his locker. "You should consider getting something weird like that, too."

Sarah thought about that for a moment. She did often get mistaken for her sisters. Even though Alison had bangs, Cosima had her glasses and Beth dressed completely differently… it wasn't enough. Maybe she'd put a new colour through her hair? Would that do it?

At times Sarah found it exhausting to have three other people who looked just like her. Not to mention, having three other people to be compared against. She hated that.

She caught her reflection in a window as Felix walked her to English, chatting about his most recent male conquest. She tried to imagine what she'd look like with dreads. Or with purple hair. Or an eyebrow piercing.

Sarah was probably the darkest of the four. She wore a lot of black, a lot of eye liner, and was generally rougher around the edges. While her sisters could piss her off something fierce, she would do anything to protect them. (At least twice she'd had to swing punches on behalf of Cosima.) She liked rock music and spent a lot of time downtown watching live gigs. Felix liked to go with her – and sometimes Cosima did too – but Mrs S wasn't always happy about them staying out so late.

She thought about how she and Alison were almost total opposites. Girly and a total neat freak, Alison was captain of the school's top soccer team and loved to work out in front of the TV with Beth. She had a large group of gossipy friends who, in Sarah's opinion, were jealous of her (and her relationship with Donnie). It often infuriated the sisters to hear Alison fussing over little things, but Sarah was thankful that she was loyal to Beth. The two of them seemed to share a pretty deep bond.

Beth was the quietest of the four and hated confrontation. She sometimes found it overwhelming to have three identical sisters with such strong personalities;it wasn't unusual for shouting matches that ended in violence. A number of times she'd had to get out of the line of fire because things had been thrown (often by Cosima or Sarah). Whenever this happened, Beth retreated to the bedroom she and Alison shared to read her crime comics. She collected them, wrote her own, and spent a lot of time on the Internet talking to people about them. She didn't particularly like Alison's friends, but was prepared to hang out with them if it meant she could stick with her sister. Cosima and Sarah would hate to be shadowed in the same way.

Sarah felt closest to the youngest sister, who was considered the academic of the family. Cosima would infuriate Alison and Beth by blasting electronic music and lighting a joint while she studied (as long as Mrs S wasn't around). Sarah was grateful that Cosima was always happy to help her with school work, but lately the two had been spending less time together. This was due to the French exchange student; there was blatant chemistry between them and Sarah loved to tease her sister about it. It was common knowledge that Cosima had experimented with girls (even one of Alison's friends, but that was a secret). That was the thing about Cosima; everyone seemed to be attracted to her, in some way or another. She was witty and charming and lightning fast. People were drawn to her and she loved to challenge them.

Sarah spent her English period trying to decide on what colour to put in her hair.

* * *

Beth washed her hands, thinking about the most recent instalment she'd written for a comic about an undercover cop in downtown LA. The bathroom was deserted so she hummed a little tune. It was one of Cosima's favourite songs; she always played it when she was high.

"Beth?"

She was startled by a voice coming from the disabled stall. The door was slightly ajar.

"Uh… who's there?" she asked. Her voice echoed around the bathroom.

"Beth?" the voice repeated. It was heavily accented.

Confused, Beth slowly walked to the stall. She peered through the gap and was met with a pair of eyes she knew only to well - for they were her own.

The door slammed shut and the lock clicked.

"Sarah, what are you doing?" Beth laughed. "What's with the accent?"

There was a pause.

"Dude, come on. Since when were you into theatrics? I thought that was Ali's domain."

Silence.

"Well, I'll see you later, then. Weirdo."

Shaking her head at her sister's bizarre antics, Beth left the bathroom and made her way back to her History class.

* * *

The day passed quickly. At 3:30, Cosima was nowhere to be found; Sarah would usually wait for her on a Monday outside the gym and they'd walk home together. Alison and Beth had soccer training and wouldn't be home until later. Remembering that Cosima had a hair appointment, she dragged her feet back to the house by herself (Felix had gone to his boyfriend's house again). She noticed Mrs S' car was gone and thought that, for once, she'd have some time to herself in the house.

But the moment she started walking up the stairs she knew Cosima was home.

"Woah, Cos! That's pretty hard core, even for you," Sarah said, coughing and waving her hand through a cloud of pot smoke. She quickly closed the door. Her sister was sprawled on the floor with Delphine, whose eyes were heavy and bloodshot. They both had stupid grins on their faces.

"Your hair looks… well, it actually looks totally sick. Kind of wish I'd thought of it first."

"Thanks, sis," Cosima said. She took another drag and then put a handful of chips into her mouth.

"Where's Mrs S?" Sarah asked. She sat on the floor next to Delphine, who handed her the joint. Sarah accepted.

"She's away for the night. Some sort of urgent thing. I dunno. There was a note in the kitchen."

Sarah felt the first wave of the drug hit her. She probably wouldn't have done so much pot had she not shared a room with Cosima.

"I thought you wouldn't be back for ages," Sarah said. She stretched back on the floor, her head resting on the rug.

Cosima and Delphine dissolved into giggles.

"We bunked off at 1," Cosima said. Then she leaned into Delphine's shoulder and continued to laugh. Delphine didn't shy away from the touch; instead, she dropped her head so that it was resting on Cosima's, and giggled.

"Keep it in your pants," Sarah mumbled.

The three of them continued to get high and eat all the snacks they could find in the house. When they ran out, Sarah decided to order pizza. Groping around for her phone at the bottom of her bag, she pulled it out to see she had about a dozen missed calls from Beth.

"Uh... did Beth try and call you too?" she asked Cosima, who was now lying on her bed. Delphine was resting her head on her stomach.

"I dunno. Why? My phone's on the desk."

"I've missed like... a million calls from Beth."

She grabbed Cosima's phone and saw that she'd also missed calls from her too.

"She probably just wants us to pick her up from training," Cosima said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Just order the pizza."

"What if she's not okay? I should call her back."

"Dude, she'll be fine. Order the pizza and then call. We're too baked to drive anyway."

Sarah couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy; it was unlike Beth to ask for favors like that. But all the same - her stomach was growling for food, and Cosima was probably right.

She ordered three large pizzas and made to dial Beth. But the moment she went to hit the call button, her phone started ringing. It was a number she didn't recognize.

Puzzled, she hit 'answer' and lifted the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Sarah," came a heavily accented voice on the other end. "I believe I have something of yours."

"Huh?"

At that moment, there was a bang downstairs. Someone was shrieking. The girls sat up, alert; it was Alison. Sarah leapt up to open the door but it flew open before she had a chance to.

"Oh my god, Alison, what the hell happened to you -"

"It's Beth!" she shrieked.

Sarah stared dumbfounded at her sister, who was heavily bleeding from a cut on her forehead. She was shaking so much she could hardly stand in one place.

"It's Beth," she repeated, dissolving into tears.


	2. Chapter 2

"Alison, calm down. Tell us what happened."

Cosima held the panicked sister by her shoulders to steady her. Sarah's blood was pounding in her ears. The world was swaying, and she didn't think it was from the drugs.

"We'd just – just finished training, and – we were walking home – I was with Donnie – and – someone hit Beth and Paul with their car and drove away! We were missed by inches – and – why couldn't I get hold of you? I was calling and calling and you're all sitting here, baked out of your minds! Fuck you _both!"_

Alison shoved Cosima off her so that she flew backwards into Delphine. The exchange student was ghostly white as she caught the shorter girl.

"Where is she? Where is Beth now?" Sarah demanded, pulling her shoes back on.

"She's at the hospital with Paul! D-D-Donnie drove me here, he's in the car. She's messed up, Sarah!"

"Call Mrs S," Sarah said to Cosima, who didn't hesitate to grab her phone this time.

* * *

"I swear the car came out of nowhere. I grabbed Alison and dived out of the way. We were _this close_ to being hit," Donnie said boldly, holding up his forefinger and thumb so that they were almost touching. Despite his stupid ponytail and cocky attitude, Sarah couldn't hate him entirely. He had just saved Alison.

"Just drive, Donnie, I don't want to relive it every five seconds," Alison choked.

The pit of Sarah's stomach was heavy as lead. She had conjured up an image of Beth, lying still and pale in a hospital bed. And next to her was Paul. Blood on his face, his eyes closed… she swallowed and gripped Cosima's hand tighter.

"Still no answer?" she asked. Mrs S wasn't picking up her phone.

Cosima shook her head and began dialling another number.

"Felix," she murmured.

A few minutes later they were pulling up to the hospital. The shock had helped reduce the effects of the pot, and Sarah thought her bloodshot eyes wouldn't be suspicious given the circumstances.

"Beth. Beth Sadler. Elizabeth Sadler," Sarah spluttered the moment she reached reception.

The receptionist didn't look up. She finished typing her sentence with an utterly bored expression.

"I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over. You can come back tomorrow – my, my… you've made a remarkable recovery!"

"Excuse me?" Sarah said, beginning to get frustrated. The receptionist was now gazing at her face with a look of disbelief.

"Didn't you get brought in an hour ago –?"

"She's my sister," Sarah said, her voice rising. "Please tell us where she is. Paul too."

"I'm sorry, the police are up there at the moment, nobody is –"

"We want to see Beth," Cosima said, stepping forward. "Now."

The receptionist did a double take, and when Alison approached the desk, she picked up the phone.

"Hold on a sec," she said, her eyes travelling from one girl to the next.

People at their school had become used to the idea that there were four identicals. But whenever strangers were faced with the strange phenomenon, it wasn't unusual for them to be met with looks of disbelief.

"Room 5319. It's in the West Wing. If anybody asks, I didn't tell you."

The party of six made to dash towards the elevators, but to their surprise, the receptionist had leapt to her feet and was blocking their path. She had a hardened expression now.

"You three only," she said, pointing at the indenticals. "Not the rest. I won't allow the rest."

Sarah pushed past immediately with Alison hot on her heels.

Cosima, who felt nauseous and was on the verge of vomiting, realised she was gripping Delphine's hand.

"Go," Delphine said softly. "I will wait for you out here."

Cosima nodded and ran after her sisters.

* * *

"Oh, Beth," Sarah said. Through the window in the door, she could see the injured sister lying unconscious surrounded by a host of doctors and police. She didn't hesitate to throw it open.

"This room is private, what do you – _oh._"

A young male doctor who looked barely 25 stopped mid sentence as the three girls barged into the room. At the sight of Beth, Alison burst into tears. Sarah and Cosima linked hands with her.

"Is she going to be okay?" Sarah asked the room at large.

Silence fell as the doctors and two policemen turned towards them.

"You all look… like, the same," the young doctor said after a few moments of silence. His eyes, like the rest of the people in the room, were traveling from the three girls to the one in the bed.

That was, everyone except a tall bald doctor who had a small smile on his face. He was looking straight at Sarah - who had already made up her mind that he was in charge. And that she didn't like him.

"Is she going to be okay? Or did you all, like, accidentally swallow sedatives?"

The tall doctor stepped away from the bed and held out his hand. Sarah ignored his gesture and demanded, for a third time, whether or not Beth was going to be okay.

"Yes, she is going to be just fine. May I have a word with the three of you in the corridor?"

He was calm. His voice was even and smooth, and Sarah thought he could have been asking for directions he was so casual.

Feeling the weight of the staring by everyone in the room, and desperate to know more about Beth, the girls followed the doctor into the corridor.

He closed the door and turned to face them. Cosima was pale and her glasses were beginning to fog up, and Alison was still sniffing intermittently.

"I'm Doctor Aldous Leekie. I was here when they brought Beth in, and –"

"Why are there cops in her room if there are no witnesses in there? And if Beth is unconscious?"

Doctor Leekie's smile didn't falter. In fact, her looked almost impressed. His eyes continued to bore into Sarah.

"They are relaying information from the witnesses to the doctors, in the hope they might better understand her injuries."

"But you just said she was going to be fine," Sarah replied, razor sharp.

"Sarah. Let him do his job," Cosima choked. "Please... Doctor Leekie, tell us more. Is she going to wake up soon?"

"Elizabeth – or, Beth as you seem to refer to her – is in an induced coma. Her injuries when she was brought in were extensive. We were concerned she might displace her spine further if she regained consciousness, but on closer inspection, her spine appeared perfectly healthy."

"So can you wake her up now?" Cosima asked. Alison had launched into a new fit of sobs.

"Soon, yes," he said. "It's quite remarkable," he added, reaching out to make an attempt at a friendly pat on Alison's shoulder. She jerked away, glaring at him through puffy eyes as if he was responsible for her sister's accident.

"Remarkable? Why?" Sarah demanded.

"She is absolutely fine. No evidence of internal injuries. No broken bones. No brain damage. Witnesses said she was hit at a decent speed. And yet… she is fine. Remarkable."

"But what about all the blood?" Alison shrieked. "I saw it! I saw her lying there, bleeding –"

"She has surface cuts and scrapes, but that is all," Doctor Leekie said, fingering his white lab coat in earnest.

"What about the fucker that knocked her and Paul down?" Sarah said, not caring about her language. "And where is Paul?" she added, turning around as if he might appear.

"You'll have to speak to police about that, I'm afraid. And Mr Dierden is in surgery. He was not as fortunate as your sister." Doctor Leekie said. The door to Beth's room opened and the young doctor emerged.

Sarah felt her stomach lurch and she did her best to keep a straight face, thankful that the young doctor's appearance had taken eyes away from her.

"Uh… whoever 'Alison' is needs to give a statement to police," he said. Alison took that as her cue to race back into the room to be at Alison's side. Cosima followed while Sarah remained in the same position. Relief that Beth was going to be okay was to colliding with panic about Paul being in surgery. But Doctor Leekie, it seemed, had not finished with her.

"You four are really quite remarkable," he said, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. "I've never encountered quadruplets before."

"Well, there's a first time for everything," Sarah said as she made to enter Beth's room.

"Was it a natural conception?"

The question made Sarah stop with her hand on the doorknob. She turned to face the tall man who still had the same small smile on his lips.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Did your parents conceive naturally, or… through alternative processes?"

Sarah didn't want to go through her back-story with this doctor, but there was something about the way he had asked it that kept her feet rooted to the spot.

"I don't know," she said shortly. "We were adopted when we were babies. We don't know much about our parents. Sorry."

This time she got as far as turning the knob and pushing the door.

"Would you like to know?"

She let the door go and turned around to face him, folding her arms. She was pissed off now. Here she was, trying to be there for Beth, and this pompous doctor was making bold statements about her biological parents.

"Our adoptive mother rescued us from what we were told were pretty dire circumstances. She moved us to Toronto before we were even a year old. And even _she_ doesn't know much about where we came from. So – no. I fail to see how a doctor can have access to any information about our biological parents. Now, if you don't mind, doctor Leekie, I'm going to see my sister.""

His face didn't falter. Without another word, she left behind the strange man to comfort Alison. Beth was stirring.

* * *

"Do you remember? Anything at all about the driver?"

Cosima gripped Beth's hand while Alison began to climb onto the bed beside her. The young doctor tried to stop her, but she batted his hand away, demanding that everyone leave them alone with her. The young doctor made to protest, but was interrupted.

"Olivier, calm down. Give the girls a chance to be with their sister. We can make a special allowance for visitors this one time. Why don't you take Beth's MRI scans down to Doctor Greene?"

Doctor Leekie was at the door. Begrudgingly, Olivier scowled and left the room holding the scans in his arms.

"And officers, you have been requested at reception. There are more witnesses and apparently a very loud boy that might need dealing with. Girls – ten minutes, then you'll have to leave."

Doctor Leekie gave a nod and left the room, finally leaving the identicals alone.

"Bet that's Felix," Beth croaked. The others breathed a collective sigh of relief; Beth had her eyes open and was smiling.

"Beth, do you remember anything? I didn't see the driver, didn't see their face… but, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you're okay," Alison cried.

Beth thought hard for a few moments.

"You're going to think I'm mental," she said. She tried to sit up a bit, but Alison kept a hand on her shoulder to keep her still.

"No, we're not," Cosima said. She took a seat at the foot of the bed while Sarah paced back and forth.

"What did you see?" Alison tried again.

"Well…" Beth began. "I thought the driver was Sarah."

"Huh? That doesn't make any sense, Beth, Sarah was with me and Delphine getting baked," Cosima said.

"Obviously I don't think it was Sarah," Beth said, her face strained. She looked like she was struggling to remember details.

"But after you acted all weird today in the bathroom, it –"

"What?" Sarah said, stopping in her tracks. "What happened in the bathroom?"

"You slammed the door on me," Beth said. "And you were saying my name in a weird-ass accent-"

Sarah rushed forward to the bed so she was face to face with Beth.

"What kind of accent?"

"Sarah, what's going on?" Alison demanded. "Do you know something about this?"

"Beth, I promise you that wasn't me in the bathroom. Was it you, Cosima? Alison?"

"No!" they both said in unison.

"But I could have sworn it was you," Beth said, looking at Sarah incredulously. "I of all people can tell the three of you apart, and it definitely wasn't Alison or Cosima –"

"What kind of accent?" Sarah repeated again desperately.

"I dunno! Like, Russian or something –"

"Fuck," Sarah breathed, digging her phone out of her pocket. "Right before Alison came yelling into the house I got a call. It was someone with an accent saying she had something of mine –"

"Someone with a Russian accent?" Beth whispered. The four girls exchanged glances, fear etched into their faces.

Sarah looked at the number she didn't recognize, then hit call. None of her sisters tried to stop her.

It rang eight times before someone answered.

"Hello?" The voice said. It wasn't accented. In fact, it was one that Sarah knew well. Extremely well.

"Mrs S?" she said incredulously.

The line went dead.


	3. Chapter 3

"What do you mean, _it was Mrs S_?" Alison demanded.

"She answered and then hung up!" Sarah spluttered, holding the phone at arms length as if it might explode.

"Holy watershed…"

Cosima stood up and started pacing.

"There is something majorly weird going on here," Beth said, worry straining her voice. "And I don't understand how _I'm_ fine and Paul is mangled, when it was me who took the full hit -"

"I was wondering the same thing."

The four girls turned around and saw Aldous Leekie framed in the doorway again, occupying a large amount of space despite his lanky body. Sarah thought he could have passed as a scientist out of Frankenstein. He took a tentative step forward into the room.

"You know, perhaps your remarkable health, Beth, is due to some kind of… genetic anomaly."

"Are you bloody serious? We're in the middle of a bloody crisis and you're spouting some garbage about genetics at us? Get out!" Sarah shouted.

Doctor Leekie held up is hands as if to admit defeat.

"I don't mean to offend, or intrude. I am merely curious."

Sarah looked down. Beth had suddenly grabbed her wrist with surprising strength.

"You need to go and find Mrs S," she whispered.

"We're not going to leave you," Cosima said, a tear spilling onto her cheek. "We're staying."

"Go! If the person who hit me has Mrs S, she could be in danger," Beth said almost inaudibly. She was conscious of Doctor Leekie, who had picked up her chart and was thumbing through it.

"I don't want to leave you alone with him," Sarah said. She didn't bother lowering her voice.

Suddenly, shouting could be heard somewhere down the corridor. Within seconds Felix had pushed past Doctor Leekie and was gasping for breath.

"Those cops… can run," he said, bending over double. "Beth… look at you," he said. "Thank black Jesus you're okay."

"I'm fine," Beth said with an attempt at a smile. "See? You guys go. Felix can stay with me."

The sisters exchanged glances. Sarah looked at Doctor Leekie who was now stopping the police at the door.

Cosima gave a nod. Alison bit her lip. Sarah grabbed their hands and led them back to reception, leaving Aldous Leekie looking slightly crestfallen.

* * *

"Give me your keys, Donnie," Alison said firmly. Donnie had been recounting the incident to more police downstairs, while an anxious looking Delphine paced the floor outside the elevators. Sarah was annoyed that Donnie was reliving the hit and run as if he was some kind of heroic survivor.

"Uh, Ali, honey, I'm in the middle of giving my statement," he said through the corner of his mouth.

"I don't care, just give me the keys."

Donnie shifted his feet uncomfortably.

"I don't like you driving my Jeep, baby," he said, giving the police a wink.

"And I don't like your tone," Alison said sharply, pushing her hand into Donnie's jacket pocket and grabbing the keys anyway. She had manoeuvred her wrist with such agility that there wasn't a chance for him to block her.

"Alison!" he said angrily, torn between wanting to finish relaying his tale to the police and stopping his girlfriend from driving his car.

"You'll get over it," she said curtly, sidestepping him and making a beeline for the exit.

"Fine! Just… be careful with it…" he said dejectedly. But the girls, Delphine included, were already running through the parking lot.

"What's going on? What's the rush?" Delphine asked as Alison fired up the engine to Donnie's Jeep. She linked her fingers through Cosima's, and with the other hand, wiped the tear tracks off her face. "Is Beth going to be okay?"

"She's fine. She'll be okay."

"And her boyfriend… Paul, is it?"

"He's in surgery. We don't know much about him yet, but it doesn't sound good."

Sarah bit her lip. Her eyes were welling with tears, and she hated her sisters seeing her cry. In the pit of her stomach she felt guilt churning with panic. How could she be thinking about Paul at a time like this? Mrs S could be in danger! But, thankfully, Alison began a moderately hysterical rant that provided a distraction.

"What are we supposed to do? I mean – do we go to the cops? They'll think we're crazy!" Alison cried, taking her hands off the wheel for a moment to gesture wildly.

"Just… drive back home, and we'll work from there. We'll figure it out," Sarah replied. She knew she'd have to try her best to keep calm; Alison didn't bode well with 'calm', and Cosima was proving to be more emotional than she expected. Delphine had pulled her into a hug and still had a look of bewilderment on her face.

"Sarah, you're being totally caviller about this whole thing! Someone tried _to run us down!_ Someone that apparently looks like you – like us! What if someone is – what if someone's trying to –"

"To what?!" Sarah shouted. "We don't know anything at this stage! We don't even know if the driver was the same person as the girl in the bathroom! Maybe Beth just got it wrong -"

"Okay, I'm totally lost," Delphine cut in, possibly to diffuse the tension. Sarah thought fleetingly that Delphine must have really liked her sister to be putting up with all the drama.

"This morning," Cosima began, "Beth had this weird encounter in the bathroom with someone she thought was Sarah – and just now, she told us that the driver of the car that hit her… looked like Sarah, too."

Cosima didn't have to look at her sisters to know they would be shaking their heads in disapproval for sharing the information.

"But Sarah was with us the whole time…"

"Exactly. And, like, the girl in the bathroom had a sort of Russian accent, according to Beth. And then we find out that some random number called Sarah and said, "I have something of yours"… and she had a Russian accent!"

"What?" Delphine breathed. "It couldn't be possible… five identicals…"

"It gets worse!" Cosima said, tears welling up in her eyes again.

"When we called back the strange number just now – it was Mrs S that answered the phone!"

"Mrs S is your adoptive mother?"

"Yes!" all the girls cried out in unison.

"Wow… okay. This is… wow."

* * *

The four girls leapt from Donnie's jeep and ran to the front door. From the outside, the house seemed empty; no evidence of lights on and no odd sounds. Sarah groped around in her pocket for her key.

"Okay. Let's just go inside, re-read Mrs S' note and try calling that number again. I think it's best if we don't panic before we have to," she said. The girls nodded, and Sarah opened the door. She turned on the hall light and gasped.

It had been ransacked. Chairs overturned, papers all over the floor – panic built up inside Sarah. She felt her sisters and Delphine close in beside her. They had every reason to be afraid now.

"Let's just… go back out to the Jeep… and go to the cops," Sarah breathed. Cosima nodded.

"I don't theenk you're going anywhere."

Alison shrieked as a figure emerged from the entrance to the basement, and Sarah got such a shock for a split second she forgot to be terrified.

It was another girl who looked just like she and her sisters – but feral. Wild, dirty blonde hair and bloodshot eyes. Jeans that looked like they had once fit but were now sagging off a thin frame. A big green jacket with a matted fur hood that made her look like a child dressed up in her parent's clothing. The girl's face was alight with a manic expression as she brandished what looked like a very old, antique knife.

"Who are you?" Sarah asked incredulously. The others were slowly edging back towards the front door while the stranger took tiny steps towards them. Sarah stood rooted to the spot.

"I have sumsing of yours," the deranged looking girl said, tilting her head slightly. Sarah thought she looked ill – and frail. She could take her, if it came to it. Not to mention she was outnumbered four to one.

"You didn't answer my question," Sarah said, raising her voice. "Who are you?"

"That ees not important for you to know," the stranger said. She was getting a bit too close for comfort. Cosima reached out and pulled Sarah towards them.

"Why did you try and hurt Beth?" Sarah spat.

"You mean – she ees okay?"

"Yes, she's alive. Why are you here? What do you want!?"

"I thought that vuld be… rather obvious by now."

"Spare us the cryptic bullshit and tell us what you want," Cosima said, her voice cracking. Alison was trembling.

"I have sumsing of yours. Now…"

The strange girl ran her fingers along the blade of her knife as if contemplating the way it had been put together.

"We can do this the easy way… or, the hard way."

"I ain't doing shit until you tell me who the fuck you are," Sarah said. She wasn't about to be messed with by some perm-headed savage.

"I guess you just chose the hard way."

"Huh?"

_Shlunk._ The handle of the knife made contact with Sarah's jaw, and suddenly it was a frenzy of limbs and flailing bodies. The strange girl had morphed into a kind of king-fu ninja, flooring Cosima and Delphine with one swoop of her arm and knocking Alison into the staircase.

Grovelling around on the ground, cradling her quickly-swelling wrist, Sarah knew she had to fight back.

She hauled herself to her feet and jumped at the stranger and the two began pummelling each other with their fists, the knife having fallen to the floor. In the commotion, Alison – who seemed to be relatively uninjured – crawled out the front door without being noticed, the knife in her hand.

* * *

Sarah stirred. She was conscious of a throbbing pain above her right temple. Her hands were stiff, and after a few moments became aware that they were tied to a post. She seemed to be slipping in an out of sleep.

A torrent of water sloshed over the top of her head and she gasped, reality coming back in full swing. What she saw made vomit crawl up to her mouth.

"Cosima! Delphine!"

The two girls were bound back to back on the other side of the basement, gagged and bloodied. The feral girl must have won the fight. Her whole body ached. Craning her neck she could see, just out the corner of her eye, Mrs S. She was not tied up - but she was out cold.

"Oi. Looky here, you," came the accented voice. A filthy leather boot lifted Sarah's chin so that she was staring right into the girl's face.

"Who are you?" Sarah managed to say. Her jaw was swollen and bruised.

"My name is Helena," she said simply, not moving her foot. "And you are lying to me. Your sister ees dead."

"What?" Sarah said, struggling against the rope that bound her hands. "She's not dead!"

"I ran her over! I saw it, I saw the blood!"

The girl named Helena knelt down and took Sarah's face in her hands, which proved to be excruciating on her jaw. Her fingers were cold and her nails were sharp.

"I killed her. I saw it."

"Well, she's not dead!" Sarah shouted. Perhaps someone would hear and come to their aid? And what had Helena done to Alison?

"You are lying!" Helena bellowed. She stood up and kicked Sarah, hard, in the side. Cosima and Delphine had tears flowing steadily down their faces.

Groaning with pain, Sarah lifted her head, ready to retort. She was going to have to do everything she could to distract Helena.

It was Alison. She was descending the basement stairs ever so slowly and quietly... in one hand was a golf club, and in the other, Mrs S' shot gun that she kept under her bed. Relief flooded her body but she knew she wouldn't be able to let it show.

"Please – please tell me what you want with us," she began, hardly able to breathe from the blow she was just dealt. "Please tell me what you want. And I'll tell you anything. Anything, I promise."

Helena surveyed her identical for a few moments.

"You are an abomination," she said thickly. "You are not real. You are not real."

"What do you mean? Of course we're real."

Sarah made sure not to break eye contact. Even through the accent, she could tell that Helena was trying to convince herself something. There was no doubt she was strong. Trained, even, in some kind of martial art. But the sight of people who looked just like her… all the training in the world couldn't have prepared her for that.

"We're all real. Beth, Cosima, me… we're real."

"How!?" she bellowed.

"Are you Russian?" Sarah asked, her voice cracking.

"Wha – no, I am Ukranian –" _whomp._

Helena crumpled to the floor. Alison stood, wide-eyed and mouth slightly agape, looking at the figure she'd just smacked with a heavy golf club.

"About bloody time," Sarah murmured.


End file.
